The Filmic Journey

Missing Pieces is a short film written by Maurice McCallum the founder and CEO of CM3 Productions. Since it's release on the internet on May 1 it has received 1,712 views and 23 likes at the time of this blog. A lot of good feedback has been received and I definitely appreciate it considering the trials to get it done. Maurice approached my about filming this short for him because everyone else he turned to was either busy or didn't want to do it. I read the script and I liked it. I could picture every scene. I am a big fan of films like this so it definitely was intriguing to me. At first I was apprehensive about filming it with my camera but I was also excited to push my little Canon Vixia HF R100 to the limit. I had some work lights and decided to use those on set but the color range on those lights were all wrong so I abandoned it for natural light. Not the brightest ideas but it made me realize I need a light kit even if I have to make one. The biggest issue we faced was the fact that the Church we used promised we would have 6 hours to shoot but instead we were told 2 hours when we arrived. A HUGE set back considering it was a 12 minute short with lots of dialogue. Days leading up the shoot so much was wrong. The producer is still a student and was busy studying for exams so he didn't have enough time to ensure certain key things were in place, but he did try. We had to recast the female leads role twice because the first lived too far and she had no transport and the second one just wasn't reliable. I asked a good friend of mine who is always willing to work and has proven very reliable to date. Thanks Nadya Raymond. The guy who plays the father was recruited the day before the shoot when I realized no actor was secured for that role. Then on the night before the shoot I heard the make up artist dropped out despite meeting with her and getting her assurance she wanted in on the project. Sigh. One disaster after the next. Then there were wardrobe issues. WOW. Normally I would have given up at this point but because of my relentless attitude and the fact that it's not easy to get a church I decided to go ahead and make due with what we had. I borrowed an H4N and Boom mic from a friend and had a guy on set operate it. Unfortunately, because I only used an H4N once several months prior (If not a year) I forgot some fundamental basics (like turning the mic on and putting the H4N on the right channel). So the sound was messed up. We had to use on board camera mic which doesn't sound too good but I did what I could in post to make it some what acceptable. 1,712 people watched it so it must be. Anyway, without further adieu here is the film Missing Pieces. This is episode 1 so expect another episode soon. This time with all the amateur kinks ironed out.